2022 Honda Civic Breaks Cover: Simplicity For The Future?

• Gets a cleaner design, with a low sporty stance, clean lines, sleeker headlights, angular LED tail lights, and an upswept boot.

• The cabin is minimalistic with a honeycomb mesh running along the dashboard.

• Key features include a 10.2-inch digital drivers display, 9-inch touchscreen infotainment system, 12-speaker Bose sound system, and wireless charging.

• Safety kit includes new front airbags, rear-side airbags, and Honda Sensing suite of active assists.

• It retains the 2.0-litre naturally aspirated and 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engines, with the latter getting a 6PS and 20Nm boost.

After releasing its first official image a couple of weeks ago, Honda has finally debuted the 11th-gen Civic in the USA, revealing the production car’s specs and interiors. The 2022 Civic, which looks like a cleaner version of its aggressively styled predecessor, is offered in four variants -- LX, Sport, EX, and Touring. 

Glance at it, and you could think it looks a lot like a toned-down tenth-gen Accord would, but this one sits lower and appears sporty (you got to thank the large air dams), complemented by clean and defined lines. The chrome on the front grille has been done away with, now replaced by coloured bodywork. The sharper LED headlights make it an angry-looking machine. Also, the A-pillars have been pushed back by a few inches, so the bonnet appears longer.

Overall, the silhouette is simplistic, completed by defined character lines flowing from the front to the rear. At the back, you get angular LED tail lights. The trunk gets a swept-up style, lending it a subtle spoiler-like vibe. 

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For the 2022 Civic, simplicity is the bedrock of the interiors. The cabin looks minimal and gets a near-complete overhaul. The honeycomb mesh running along the dashboard’s width helps hide the air vents, resulting in a clean look.  

The 11th-gen Civic is loaded with features like a 10.2-inch digital driver’s display, a 9-inch touchscreen infotainment system (the largest in a Honda car) with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a 12-speaker Bose sound system, wireless charging, and dual-zone climate control. 

There’s a host of safety equipment in the new Civic, including rear-seat side airbags and doughnut-shaped front airbags that help reduce the severity of injuries and trauma to the brain. Also, there’s the Honda Sensing suite of active safety and driver-assistance tech like the new single-camera system with a wider field of view, traffic jam assist, adaptive cruise control, and lane keeping assist.

The 2022 Civic will be powered by the same petrol engines as its predecessor -- a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated and a 1.5-litre turbocharged motor. The former propels the LX and Sport variants, generating 158PS and 187Nm. The latter makes 180PS and 240Nm (a boost of 6PS and 20Nm) powers the EX and Touring variants. Both engines come with a CVT transmission only. There’s also a new ‘Sport’ mode that alters the drive ratios and mapping for a bit more oomph. 

The performance-focused Type R and Si trims will be introduced later with (probably) a manual transmission. The previous-gen Type-R used a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol mill (mated to a 6-speed manual with a limited-slip differential), delivering 320PS and 400Nm and driving the front wheels.

Honda has made the new Civic a bit more driver-focused with improvements to the ride and handling. Not only does it get a refined suspension setup, but the wheelbase has increased by 35mm (that should make it spacious) and the rear track is wider by 12.7mm. Combine that with a reworked power steering, and the new Civic should handle corners better than before.

The 2022 Honda Civic will be available in eight colours, three of which are new. These are the Meteorite Gray Metallic, Sonic Gray Pearl, and Morning Mist Blue Metallic. There’s no word yet on whether this new sedan will arrive in India, considering its predecessor was taken off the shelves in December 2020. But if it does, it will resume rivalries with the Hyundai Elantra and the upcoming fourth-gen Skoda Octavia.